Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What a drag that Phil Spector had to go and kill someone. Now he's been found guilty of murder, and it sounds like he'll be in prison for a long time.

This is the end of a sad and tragic tale, said Mick Brown in the Telegraph. “In his heyday in the early ’60s, Spector produced some of the most exuberant and uplifting recordings ever heard in pop music.” But the “teenage genius” who briefly became “the most successful producer in rock and roll” was ultimately “overtaken by hubris and his own demons.”

So this is what we're supposed to think of now every time we hear something Phil Spector did? That's the big drag. I remember hearing that one of the guys from Motown, who I believe was on the song "Shotgun" among others, killed someone. So that's what I think of when I hear that song. But Phil Spector is a legend in every way, and had so many records.

Big ones too, the '60s groups, with great songs like "Be My Baby," a bunch of them. And John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" album and George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album.

Well, I guess the only way to look at it is that he did great work back then but went on to be somewhat crazed in later years. And really anybody could do the same thing, depending on how crazed we get.